Minnesota State Mankato to Host Virtual Lecture on Japanese Detention Camps

Thursday, April 29, 2021
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Virtual event

Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato will host a virtual lecture by Sam Mihara, who was raised in a Japanese detention camp, on “Japanese American Imprisonment During World War II” on Thursday, April 29 at 4 p.m.

This virtual event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register for the lecture at https://sbs.mnsu.edu/events/sam-mihara/.

According to a preview provided by the event organizers, Mihara’s parents were born in Japan and immigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s. Mihara was born in the early 1930s and raised in San Francisco. When World War II broke out, the United States government forced Mihara and his family to move first to a detention camp in Pomona, California, and then to a remote prison camp in Northern Wyoming, where they stayed for three years. The camp was one of 10 in the United States. Together the camps housed a total of 120,000 West Coast residents of Japanese ancestry, most of them U.S.-born American citizens.

For more information, contact Gina Wenger, faculty chair of Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Art and Design, by phone at 507-389-5484 or by email at gina.wenger@mnsu.edu.

The event sponsors include Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, and from the University, the colleges of Arts and Humanities, Education and Social and Behavioral Sciences; the Kessel Peace Institute; the Center for Asian American Affairs; the departments of Art and History; the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment Program; and the Social Studies Program. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas is also a sponsor.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,604 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 30 colleges and seven universities.